The Sights and Sounds Behind the Scenes

Audio and Video

We believe in taking care of our customers and standing behind our products. Our standard two-year “no-questions-asked” warranty was already top notch. But we’ve decided that five is better than two.

Steve says it best:

“The Alcorn McBride brand is known for rock-solid reliability and unsurpassed customer support,” says CEO Steve Alcorn. “We’ve always had a two-year product warranty and the industry’s most customer-friendly support policies. Now we’ve decided to increase that to an unprecedented five-year product warranty.”

“Frankly, our existing customers have always known they can expect that level of support from us, so we’ve decided to make sure the rest of the world knows, too.”

The life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln will come alive in the new home of the Lincoln Heritage Museum on the campus of Lincoln College when it reopens in April 2014 in Lincoln, Illinois. The museum will use Alcorn McBride’s Digital Binloop, A/V Binloop HD, ProTraXX, DMX Machines and V16 Pro to interpret the world in which the 16th president lived, particularly as it pertained to Illinois.

The life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln will come alive in the new home of the Lincoln Heritage Museum on the campus of Lincoln College when it reopens in April 2014 in Lincoln, Illinois. The museum will use Alcorn McBride’s Digital Binloop, A/V Binloop HD, ProTraXX, DMX Machines and V16 Pro to interpret the world in which the 16th president lived, particularly as it pertained to Illinois. Read more...

Alcorn McBride’s Binloops are the best synchronized A/V players on the market. OK, that’s quite a claim, and yes, I am an Alcorn McBride employee. So saying “Alcorn McBride has the best synchronized video players on the market” may sound a little like “my son is the best football player on the team” (well, he is quite talented). “Proud parent” boasting? Yes. Marketing hype? Perhaps a little. BUT, this is a claim I can back up with sound engineering practices. And since I am not an engineer, let’s turn to an expert who is. Read more...

Why Should I Care about Synchronized A/V?

As A/V projects become more extravagant, the ability to synchronize multiple channels of audio and video is becoming critical to the industry. For companies that are pushing the envelope of technology, it’s not enough to just throw an LCD panel on a wall and call it a day. Today’s modern A/V projects can involve entire areas covered in flat-panels, LED surfaces, or projection. With so many display devices side-by-side, it’s critical for the guest experience to ensure that the content being shown on these displays is high-quality and coherent across the display devices. Read more...

InfoComm is always a high point in the year for us. We have face to face meetings with our customers and show what our Engineers have been up to for the past year. So when I read Chuck Ansbacher’s post on 4K I too was left scratching my head. If you haven’t read it, his article was on the questions surrounding 4K at InfoComm.

Although I spend most of my days designing software for our products, I get to take a few days each year creating video content for our trade show booths. InfoComm2013 is just a few weeks away, so this is an ideal time to talk about producing 4K videos. The most important thing I have learned over the past few days developing the content for our booth is:

It is surprisingly easy to create and display 4K video!

The four things you need are:

resources

playback device

editing / encoding software

a display device

There are already lots of choices out there to cover these requirements, so I’ll just talk about what I used. Read more...

There are two sides to every story, as the tag line for the Mob Museum in Las Vegas reminds us, and Alcorn McBride is helping the city’s newest attraction tell the tales of both organized crime and law enforcement. The Mob Museum is utilizing a full inventory of Alcorn McBride equipment for audio, video and show control throughout its historic 1930’s location, a former federal courthouse and post office.

The museum, which opened in February, showcases the notorious battle between organized crime and law enforcement with high-tech theater presentations, iconic artifacts – including the actual brick wall from the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre – and interactive exhibits and environments, including FBI wiretap surveillance and weapons training. The project was designed by Ray Kent, Westlake Reed Leskosky. AVI-SPL was the primary AV integrator, with programming support by Kevin Ruud. Ryan Markus and Nester Ramos, Mob Museum’s AV/IT staff, handle ongoing maintenance and system programming. Read more...

Alcorn McBride Inc. will be making headlines at InfoComm 2012 by introducing three important products, announcing a product upgrade and hosting a Manufacturer’s training session and cutting-edge technology seminar. The company’s booth, C9225, will be located in the Central Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.

In product news, TourTraXX, RideTraxx and AMI/O will make their debut at InfoComm and ShowTouch for Apple iPad will get an update.

A GPS-triggered multi-channel vehicle audio player designed for up to 16 audio tracks, TourTraXX is ideal for pre-recorded bus tours, trolleys, shuttles and trams. It stores clips in MP3 format on CompactFlash for a rugged, reliable and maintenance-free solution to playback needs. It is lightweight (4 lbs.), sized to fit almost anywhere and, with no moving parts, works in high-vibration environments. Once programmed with the free and easy to use GPS Builder, TourTraXX steps through cues automatically as it moves through defined geographical zones.Read more...

The TourTraXX is a 16 channel MP3 audio player designed for installation in vehicles. The TourTraXX can use its GPS location to trigger any number of commands such as Play, Stop, Set Volume, Write to an External LCD Display, and more. These commands are entered into a GPS playlist using the GPS Builder software available as a free download from our support software website.

In the past, it was necessary to enter coordinates manually or connect an additional GPS antenna directly to your laptop to retrieve the current location for a GPS trigger. It is now possible to use the GPS antenna connected to the TourTraXX to retrieve GPS coordinates. This greatly simplifies the process of creating and changing GPS triggers because there is no need for an additional GPS antenna. Read more...

Larry and I just got back from ISE 2012 in Amsterdam. Despite the frigid temperatures, it was a great show. It’s a big show extending through multiple exhibit halls that are all fairly disconnected but people found us without a problem. I guess it helps to be next to a pizza stand!